


Starting Again

by ziyazu



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Birthday Bonfires, Forest Bonding, Gen, Hale Family Feels, M/M, Mama Hale Feels, Pre-Slash, Rabbits As Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-23 00:23:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/919795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziyazu/pseuds/ziyazu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Do you really not do anything?” she mumbles. “We always used to do something.”</p><p>Derek blinks, then closes his eyes. Of course. Mom’s birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starting Again

“It’s this weekend.”

He looks at her, furrows his brow. They hadn’t actually been talking about anything.

“This weekend?” Cora looks at him pointedly. He raises his eyebrows, gives his head a little shake. She shoots him a disbelieving look, and then, after a minute, a hurt one. She looks down at the hard concrete floor, twists her fingers together in her lap.

“Do you really not do anything?” she mumbles. “We always used to do _something_.”

Derek blinks, then closes his eyes. Of course.

Mom’s birthday.

He sighs, puts down his book, and stands, crossing the room to drop down next to her on the end of his big bed. They bump shoulders, and she sniffs.

“We used to- me and Laura...” He trails off, then laughs, shortly. “We used to get shitty Chinese and bitch about all the training she made us do. Remember the overnight forest runs? Before school?” Cora smiles, softly, and sniffs again. He looks at her, tracing the familiar family lines in her face, the ones he never thought he’d see again. Something in his chest tightens, and he puts his hand over hers.

“Hey.” She looks up at him, eyes hopeful.

“Let’s do something. Go out into the woods, I dunno. Hale family bonfire, like we used to. Hotdogs, rabbits, marshmallows. The works.”

She bites her lip, wincing. “…bonfire?” He sighs, looking away, and then nods suddenly, decidedly.

“It was tradition. They wouldn’t mind.” She hesitates, then nods too, offers up another small smile.

“Okay.”

He quirks his mouth at her. Almost a smile. “Just you and me.”

She frowns.

“What about the pack?”

He snorts, without humour. “What pack?” His eyes fall on his hands, shaking slightly, so he clamps them on his knees, ignoring the punch in his gut, the memory of the water… She makes an irritated noise next to him, elbows him.

“Um, hello? Isaac? Scott? Peter?”

“NOT Peter. And Scott has made it very clear that he is not pack.”

“You know he is, though, right? He cares. He’s just…”

“Just what?”

She smiles, cheekily. “Seventeen?”

He rolls his eyes. “So what, you, me, Isaac, Scott? That won’t be awkward at _all_.”

She smacks him. “You’re forgetting our banshee. And Stiles.”

“ _Stiles?_ ”

“He’s more pack than Scott.”

He groans, falling back on the bed. “You know Mom would disown us for having humans at her birthday, right?”

Cora smirks. “Mom would’ve understood, “ she says primly.

Derek shoots her a suspicious look. “ _Cora_ ,” he says, with meaning.

She glares at him. “ _Derek_.”

“No.”

“No what?”

“No, you may not date Stiles.”

Cora laughs, flopping beside him. “Who says I want to?”

“Everything about this entire conversation, suddenly.”

She titters, teasingly. “He _did_ save my life. Like, a LOT.”

“He’s _human_. And a _boy_.”

“So, you’d be fine with me dating Lydia?”

“Well, she’s neither a human nor a boy, so, actually, yes. That would be a better option. Why do you need to date anyone?”

“Because _I’m_ seventeen?”

Derek covers his face with his hands. He sighs. “Look, whatever, just don’t saddle us with a tiny squalling liability, alright? The last thing I need is for the Sheriff to come visit his grandchild on the full moon and find a puppy.”

Cora laughs so hard she actually rolls off the bed. Derek lies there, following the lines of the pipes on the ceiling, listening to her hysterical glubs and gulps, a smile tugging at his lips too. He's missed this.

Finally she gasps, “Oh my god. OH MY GOD. Fine. _I am never dating Stilinski_.”

Derek pokes his head over the edge of the bed to eye her suspiciously. “That was easy.”

She smirks up at him, sisterly evil sharpening her fangs. “Well, you do have dibs. I wouldn’t want to cross my Alpha.”

He growls at her, eyes flashing, and she’s up and away with him behind her by mere milliseconds. By the time they collapse, exhausted, on the sofa, half the loft is in ruins and the hole in the wall is at least twice as large as it had been. He eyes some of the new rubble. “I hope that’s not asbestos.”

Cora giggles, and shifts her head on his shoulder. He smoothes a hand over her hair, and presses a kiss to her temple.

*

Stiles’ eyes are wide in the firelight, the regular drip of the thick, nearly-black blood oozing from the small furry body he’s holding at arm’s length seeming to punctuate his shock.  

“ _Seriously_ , Derek? You caught me a _fucking rabbit?_ WHAT THE HELL?”

Cora’s laughter spikes the night, and flames reach high into the dark night sky, orange sparks mingling with the summer stars of the Milky Way.


End file.
